nts of the exports and
imports, prefects of the treasury and of the mints, with an army
of clerks of all titles and all ranks. From this government the
Alexandrians were exempt, living under their own military prefect and
corporation, and, instead of paying any taxes beyond the custom-house
duties at the port, they received a bounty in grain out of the taxes of
Egypt.

Soon after this we find the political division of Egypt slightly
altered. It is then divided into eight governments; the Upper Thebaid
with eleven cities under a duke; the Lower Thebaid with ten cities,
including the Great Oasis and part of the Heptanomis, under a general;
Upper Libya or Cyrene under a general; Lower Libya or Parastonium under
a general; Arcadia, or the remainder of the Heptanomis, under a general;
AEgyptiaca, or the western half of the Delta, under an Augustalian
prefect; the first Augustan government, or the rest of the Delta, under
a _Corrector_; and the second Augustan government, from Bubastis to the
Red Sea, under a general. We also meet with several military stations
named after the late emperors: a Maximianopolis and a Dioclesianopolis
in the Upper Thebaid; a Theodosianopolis in the Lower Thebaid, and a
second Theodosianopolis in Arcadia. But it is not easy to determine what
villages were meant by these high-sounding names, which were perhaps
only used in official documents.

The empire of the East was gradually sinking in power during this long
and quiet reign of Theodosius II.; but the empire of the West was being
hurried to its fall by the revolt of the barbarians in every one of its
widespread provinces. Henceforth in the weakness of the two countries
Egypt and Rome are wholly separated. After having influenced one another
in politics, in literature, and in religion for seven centuries, they
were now as little known to one another as they were before the day when
Fabius arrived at Alexandria on an embassy from the senate to Ptolemy
Philadelphus.

Theological and political quarrels, under the name of the Homoousian
and Arian controversy, had nearly separated Egypt from the rest of the
empire during the reigns of Constantius and Valens, but they had been
healed by the wisdom of the first Theodosius, who governed Egypt by
means of a popular bishop; and the policy which he so wisely began
was continued by his successors through weakness. But in the reign of
Marcian (450--457) the old quarrel again broke out, and, though it was